2025 Porsche 911 Showdown: GT3 RS 4.0 vs 911 R vs S/T

911 Supremacy:
Comparing the GT3 RS 4.0 vs 911 R vs S/T

These are the three greatest water-cooled Porsche 911s, each a true engineering masterpiece. But which to choose? Andrew Frankel gets to decide

Three of the greatest modern Porsche 911s — the GT3 RS 4.0, 911 R, and 911 S/T — go head-to-head to find out which truly captures the spirit of the 911. Each offers its own take on performance: the RS 4.0’s raw track focus, the 911 R’s road-friendly purity, and the S/T’s perfectly balanced evolution.

In this ultimate Porsche 911 comparison, we look at how each differ in design, performance, driving feel, and everyday usability. From engine character to handling balance and the purity of a manual gearbox, each model delivers a distinct driving experience. By exploring what sets these three 911 collector cars apart, we aim to decide which one truly deserves the title of the best modern Porsche 911.

I can remember when I first drove the 911 S/T. My diary tells me it was July 21st last year. In the story I subsequently penned I wrote: ‘As the recreation it so clearly is and for those who really understand driving, the S/T is untouchable. Inviolate. Extraordinary. In the fantasy automotive aircraft hangar in my garden, the S/T would have pride of place, first in the queue by the door, just waiting for the right time and weather to get out there and let rip.’

And when I say such things, I do so with infinite care because I know from experience how quickly ill-judged hyperbole can about face and bite you on the behind when least expected. Yet as I sought to reassure people in the weeks and months to come that it was indeed as good as I’d said it was, it did give me cause to reflect a little. And wonder. Untouchable? Really? By any comparable street car made today for sure. But of them all? A question that sits at the heart of any serious Porsche 911 comparison.

Indeed, it was during a discussion with Dan on this very point that we realised that not only was there a way of finding out, not only would the result be the modern 911 test to end them all, but also and so far as we were and remain aware, no one else had done it. In that moment, we knew we simply had to.

Because the S/T was not the only limited edition, water-cooled Porsche 911 to have been proclaimed to be the greatest, for two had come before: the 997-era GT3 RS 4.0 and 991-series 911 R. We knew Porsche had the S/T and by immense good fortune, we knew someone who had unimprovable, right-hand drive examples of the other two. And yes, he’d be more than happy to bring them along for what would become a definitive GT3 RS vs 911 R vs S/T evaluation.

Of all Porsches cooled by what you drink rather than breathe, these, surely, are the finest. And to see them together for the first time was a moment of great importance, relief and some pride to us.

By the time all three met, I’d already collected the S/T from Reading, driven it back to my home in the Wye Valley and had a proper run over fine roads I’ve known for 30 years. And I was standing by every word of my story. The sound, the gearshift and, oh-my-goodness that damping. It felt like it had been developed only and exclusively on and for this particular road, except it felt the same on every other road too. It would be nice, I thought, to have a conclusion where the oldest of the group wins because it always feels better: that’s what had happened when we did a similar (and similarly exclusive) story with Ferraris 599 GTO, F12 tdf and 812 Competizione. But after that run in the ST, I really couldn’t see it happening again, especially given how strong the Porsche 911 S/T review impression already was in my mind.”

Key Differences: RS 4.0 vs 911 R vs S/T

Even so I fairly ran towards the GT3 RS 4.0, clearly the greatest of the 997-era 911s. Looking at it relative to the others, what strikes most is how similar they all appear, at least on paper. Their engines are amazingly similarly specified, displacing the same cubic capacity (the 997’s being from the original ‘Mezger’ engine series, it is fractionally wider of bore and commensurately shorter of stroke) while all three have six-speed Porsche manual gearboxes and the same naturally aspirated flat-six layout. Perhaps most interestingly is that over the dozen or more years and two distinct generations, the S/T has put on just 20kg of weight relative to the RS 4.0, with the 911 R sat plumb between them. Given how much physically bigger is the 992 and the market and regulatory pressure to add weight, it says much about Porsche’s grim determination to keep the mass of such cars under the tightest of control.

But there are differences here, and big ones too. In its day the 997 was intended to be used as much on track as on road, hence its big wings, while the 911 R and S/T are proudly street machines only – a key distinction in any GT3 RS vs 911 R vs S/T comparison. So maybe today that’ll count against the oldest of our trio. But so too is it the only one here to have hydraulically assisted power steering so perhaps that’ll tip the balance the other way. One more thing: between the 997 and 991 generation cars, Porsche extended the wheelbase by over 10cm, prioritising stability over agility. It’s something the 911 R tries to mitigate with its four-wheel steering, but for the S/T, presumably to save weight and preserve purity of feel, it got ditched, a change that significantly alters the car’s driving character without needing to show up dramatically in the numbers.

Inside the 911 GT3 RS 4.0: Pure Mechanical Feel

The inside of the 997, and there is no kind way of saying this, looks old. The switchgear, dials and overall design appear from another era which, of course, they were, this car’s origins dating back to the previous century and the arrival of the first water-cooled 911 in 1998.

The 4-litre engine starts with a metallic rasp, all purpose, no messing about. Slotting the stubby gear-lever into place will remind you what your bicep is for while the clutch will do the same for your quads. This car has just returned from a gearbox rebuild so it will probably ease up in time, but as ever we report as we find. It’s the same honest, mechanical feel that continues to shape the reputation of the GT3 RS 4.0.

There’s no time to assess any of their more mundane abilities and as I doubt many owners will be using theirs as daily drivers, such concerns should not delay us in any case. So engine hot, it’s off to work we go, the sort of moment that defines why these Porsche GT cars are so compelling.

Experiencing the Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 on the Road

At once the 997 establishes its credentials. Its ride is just – and I do mean just – the right side of harsh. It jiggles and squirms a bit over imperfections in the road, its track-bred heritage blindingly clear to see and feel, but its squat, zero nonsense stance is core to your enjoyment of the car: it is not kidding, it means every word, and you know it from the off. And the payoff is felt of a kind that if one ran over your foot, the driver would know when you last trimmed your toenails. And you just don’t get that in more modern cars. Do you? This was not a day for finding limits on public roads in any of them, and with all shod with Michelin Cup 2 rubber, suffice to say there’s more than enough in the dry for anyone fit to be let loose in public. But that sense of connection to your surroundings, and the confidence the RS 4.0 brings cannot be overestimated. That sense of connection, and the confidence the RS 4.0 gives you, is exactly why so many still regard it as one of the most authentic and involving Porsche 911s ever built.

Engine Performance and Driving Thrills of the GT3 RS 4.0

And what can I say about that engine which hasn’t been said a thousand times before? Above 6000rpm its sound is sharp enough to pierce your heart and by the time you need to call for another gear somewhere around 8600rpm you can’t really imagine ever hearing anything better. You don’t have to be driving it like this though, because one of the bigger benefits the 4-litre motor brought was its superior mid-range torque compared to the ‘standard’ 3.8 GT3 RS. Indeed, it develops similar torque to its more modern relatives, but at fewer revs. So you can drive it slowly, though why you would eludes me.

For on the right road, this Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 that makes you wonder what the others might have to do even to get near it, let alone best it. And, as it happens, there’s one waiting just over there, ready to find out.

911 R Driving Impressions and Road Performance

Goodness me, the contrast. If there was one enormous surprise of the day, it was waiting within the 911 R. I know this is a car with a subtly different brief to the RS 4.0, but if you ever wondered how serious Porsche was about optimising this car for the road, and how much was actually just marketing guff, you’d not be 100 yards up the road before wondering no more.

First it feels so much more modern. The trim is better, although I do miss the RS 4.0’s slathering of Alcantara, and the steering wheel derived from that first seen in the 918 Spyder is a huge improvement. But it’s really when you start the motor, select a gear and head out that the real differences present themselves.
The clutch is lighter, the gearbox even quicker and more slick, but it’s the ride and refinement that really send your eyebrows north. The car feels so much more compliant than the RS and if some of you are thinking ‘what was he expecting?’, the answer is ‘not this’. It almost glides along the road by comparison and despite all I’ve said about these cars not being daily drivers, this one absolutely could be if that’s what you wanted. There’s far less road noise too.

So there’s payback when you really start to hustle it, right? It really rather depends. The RS 4.0 is unquestionably an even more hardcore, driver-centric machine which in its control weights and requirement for perfectly rev-matched downshifts (the more modern cars both have autoblip) demands more of the driver, but almost everyone will find almost nothing remotely deficient about the way the 911 R gets down the road, not least because they’re unlikely to have just stepped straight from the RS. It’s a car you could drive far further before tiring and one that is still responsive and rewarding in a way very few other cars could conceive. And even that wheelbase extension is mitigated in more than small part by the four-wheel steering. But it hasn’t got that steering feel – however well synthesised its feel is, the sense you’re playing a top of the range Yamaha Clavinova while the other blokes got the Bösendorfer from which your sound was sampled is hard to escape.

What Makes the 911 R Engine Stand Out

But here’s the biggest surprise of all, and I am aware I’m now going to be condemned as some kind of heretic among the Porsche cognoscenti: I think I prefer Porsche 911 R engine to the Mezger. There, I’ve said it. It spins a little further, a
touch more freely and to these ears might even sound a shade sweeter too. And no, I’d not been expecting it either. The naturally aspirated flat-six engine delivers a character and responsiveness that make this modern Porsche 911 a joy on every road.

Revisiting the 911 S/T After Driving the Others

What have these two done to the pedestal upon which I had placed the 911 S/T before this test? Well, they’ve been chopping away at the base, the splinters are flying, but we’ll need to run it up the road once last time before I allow it to fall.
And even after the RS 4.0 and the 911 R, the S/T’s capacity to leave me gasping at what it can do remains undimmed. Although the figures show only minimal differences, in reality, the extra power of the latest GT3 RS engine combined with shortened gear ratios make the S/T feel the quickest of the three by a significant margin, and that engine – a development as it is from the one in the 911 R – is a work of genius. It feels like a full race motor because, of course, that’s what it is.

I thought it might miss the absence of all-wheel steering and perhaps on track it would, but this is not a track car, and on the road for some reason you don’t really notice it’s not there. My guess is that the sharpness conferred by the double wishbone front suspension (remember the other two have simple struts) to some extent obviates the need for it.

How the 911 S/T Balances Comfort and Control

As for the set up, and this won’t be news to many of you, when you drive it you spend most of your time wishing GT3s rode like this, but relative to the 911s it faces here it’s clearly aimed somewhere between the two: less committed than the RS 4.0, more focused than the 911 R. And there’s a very good argument to say that, having created its two illustrious forebears, positioning the S/T in the middle of them is simple commonsense, especially when the result is as brilliantly good at what it does as this.

From which it might also be fair to infer that it’s the best car here, something I am happy to confirm. It’s the quickest – as if that matters – it’s the one that would work best across the widest range of road and track environments, it has the best looking interior (again, at least to me) and I think it has the coolest name.

The only problem it presents is that if I could take just one of them home to keep forever, this wouldn’t be the S/T. Perhaps the 911 R, then, the one in which you’d most like to spend the most time? It’s a very powerful argument, and one I have espoused on many occasions, as anyone familiar with my ‘the measure of the fun a car can provide is how enjoyable it is to drive, multiplied by the number of times you feel inclined to drive it’ mantra will attest. And if I owned the R, and if I didn’t care about the money I lost piling big miles onto it, I’d do vast distances in it and love every second.

By contrast and by the same measures, I’d certainly drive the Porsche GT3 RS 4.0 the least. It’s not as uncompromising as, say, a 991 GT3 RS and would be a lot easier to live with, but there’s no denying it’s the one of the three that asks the most of its driver, part of which is forcing you to accept there were times you’d go out in either of the other two, but leave the 4.0 behind.

What Makes Each Model Special

So, which is it to be? It’s a struggle because even by the standards of very special Porsche 911s, all are sublime. And not for a second did I doubt the central contention that started the ball rolling which resulted in these words, namely that of all modern 911s, these are the best of the best. I could make the case for any of them: the RS 4.0 the most involving, the 911 R the most usable, the 911 S/T the best blend of the two, for that is how they stand. My choice therefore is a purely personal one, which is not that common when doing this job, because if I only ever chose the cars that were right for me, there’d be a lot of people out there cursing me for the choices they’d feel I’d pushed them into making. But with cars such as these, when they are all so good (not to mention unattainable for most of us) let objectivity be damned. I’m taking the RS 4.0 because it’s the one I enjoyed driving most, and my rule about such things outlined above can be damned too, because if I were in the RS 4.0 league, I’d also have a shedful of other stuff I could take out when conditions weren’t quite right for it.

The Reality of Rare, Limited-Edition Cars

I’ve also quite deliberately omitted to mention their relative scarcity until now because I’m not sure such things should play a part in such stories, but the truth is there were only 600 RS 4.0s, compared to 991 911 Rs and a considerable 1963 S/Ts and were I looking for investment potential, no question the RS is where it’s at. But it’s not really about that. It’s about a road and how a modern Porsche 911 responds when you drive along it in a manner that would make its creator smile. It’s about how it feels and how it makes you feel. And however great the sense of privilege when you reach the end of the road and step out of an RS 4.0, 911 R, or S/T, however much fun you’ve had, in the RS you’re more likely just to sit there a while, listening to the car cool, replaying every foot of the journey over and over in your mind in the hope that by so doing not one second of it will be lost to your memory.

To me, it is not only the greatest (which is not the same as the best) of the three gathered here today, but of all production road cars so far built this century. It is, in short, the one that I would have. I should be so lucky.